Privacy curtains are most often used in hospitals and other health care facilities, especially when multiple patients occupy a common space. Such curtains usually comprise a main, lower privacy section made of opaque material, and a meshed upper section. The curtains are routinely hung from ceiling tracks, so that they can be easily moved and positioned around a given patient's space, as the dictates of privacy require. The user opens and closes the curtains simply by holding onto the curtain's edge and pulling or pushing the curtain as it travels around the ceiling track.
However, in a hospital or like healthcare facility, where a clean and germ free environment is of primary importance, repeated touching of the privacy curtain presents an invitation for infection. The curtain will become contaminated, as various users, both medical staff and visitors, grab the edges to open and close it during day-to-day operations. Privacy curtains are expensive, so they are rarely replaced and lack of time and resources prevent their being laundered between patients. As a practical matter, in many cases, they are often never properly cleaned. Thus, privacy curtains become a prime source for the potential spreading of infection in environments that can ill afford this threat.